I have a felling the winner is going to be from Holland

I like your feeling

Lucca - Firenze



The 281 kilometres of the route and the 10 climbs to Fiesole should make the race very tough on the riders, especially in the closing stages of the season. The most likely outcome of the race will be a small group of riders arriving to the finish line in Firenze as the top of the hill is 10 kilometers from the finish.



Only 4 riders formed the break of the day in the World Championship: Andre Greipel (Germany), Yoann Offredo (France), Maxim Iglinskiy (Kazakhstan) and Thomas de Gendt (Belgium). This was a particularly good move by Belgium, as they will be the only team with a strong favorite that will not have to do any chasing. However, many teams were collaborating behind and their gap with 130 kilometres remaining was 4' 20''.



The break was more than easily brought back by Italy and the Netherlands with 50 kilometers and almost 3 laps remaining. Up to this point no rider from either Spain or Belgium has shown himself in the first places of the peloton. However, several important riders have been discarded from the fight from the WC as crashes and technical failures hit them: Joaquim Rodriguez, Chris Froome and Tony Gallopin.



The Netherlands had been setting the pace for the whole day but allowed Italy and Australia to take that role for a few kilometres. However, once they came back Bauke Mollema almost broke away in the penultimate climb to Fiesole due to the high pace. Everything came back to normal in the beginning of the descent, with 25 kilometres remaining.



The first serious attack in the World Championship came in the last climb to Fiesole. Peter Stetina was the first to break from the group. This time it was Belgium that reacted the first as Ben Hermans soon took the wheel of the American. The main favorites still haven't made an appearance and there are only 14 kilometres remaining.



The race was turned upside down in this last climb. All the favorites attacked and a group of 7 reached to the top including 3 Belgians: Bjorn Leukemans, Dries Devenyns and Ben Hermans. The other riders were Simon Gerrans, Mikel Nieve, Peter Stetina and Rob Ruijgh. They have 30 seconds on the first chasing group so if they collaborate they have a good chance of arriving ahead.



Janez Brajkovic and Peter Kennaugh reached the front group early in the descent but there was no one willing to work in the group. It was weird that the Belgians didn't work, as there were three of them. That meant that the group was absorbed by another quite big group in the very small hill with 5 kilometers remaining.



The Netherlands took the responsibility to drive the bunch in the last kilometers. Bauke Mollema is leading the pack as they head into the last 3 kilometers. The result of the World Championship is really difficult to predict as the teams start to prepare for the final sprint.



Cameron Meyer started the sprint as he was leading Simon Gerrans to the front of the pack to sprint. The other riders in the front were Alessandro Ballan and Lieuwe Westra. None of the pure sprinters were able to squeeze into the group fighting for the sprint so this would be the classics specialists fight.



Alessandro Ballan wins in Firenze! The local crowd goes mad as Italy gets its first rainbow jersey. Their favorite was Davide Rebellin but they had a dark horse on Alessandro Ballan, who took his chance as he didn't get to jump to the break in the last climb. This is the biggest win in the career of the Italian, who is out of a contract for next season.

The podium was completed by Simon Gerrans and Janez Brajkovic. They had already been second and third last year, confirming them as two of the best hills riders in the peloton. The fourth place went to Dries Devenyns as Belgium's poor strategy meant that they dropped out of the podium. Cameron Meyer dropped to the final 5th place in the sprint.

Today's Winner



Stage Results

1		Alessandro Ballan	ITALY NATIONAL TEAM	8h05'41
2		Simon Gerrans	AUSTRALIA NATIONAL TEAM	s.t.
3		Janez Brajkovic	SLOVENIA NATIONAL TEAM	s.t.
4		Dries Devenyns	BELGIUM NATIONAL TEAM	s.t.
5		Cameron Meyer	AUSTRALIA NATIONAL TEAM	s.t.
6		Lieuwe Westra	NETHERLANDS NATIONAL TEAM	s.t.
7		Philippe Gilbert	BELGIUM NATIONAL TEAM	s.t.
8		Mikel Nieve	SPAIN NATIONAL TEAM	s.t.
9		Geraint Thomas	GREAT BRITAIN NATIONAL TEAM	s.t.
10		Tom Boonen	BELGIUM NATIONAL TEAM	s.t.

Ballan World Champion , so much for my hopes in the Dutch

Great to see Geraint in the top ten

In truth it was difficult for the Dutch even after Van Leijen won in Quebec. But come on, they cannot be unhappy as they took the Giro and the Vuelta!

UCI World Tour rankings riders (after Road World Championships)

1		Bauke Mollema	Vacansoleil	705.53
2		Tejay Van Garderen	BMC	620.42
3		Fränk Schleck	Radioshack	566.43
4		David López	Euskaltel	557.48
5		Rob Ruijgh	Rabobank	441.97
6		Mikel Nieve	Discovery	407.56
7		Denis Menchov	Quickstep	377.78
8		Hubert Dupont	Rabobank	304.97
9		Peter Stetina	BMC	288.46
10		José Joaquin Rojas	HTC	253.91
11		Peter Sagan	Vacansoleil	231.22
12		Björn Leukemans	Lotto	230.57
13		Davide Rebellin	Movistar	224.12
14		Jelle Vanendert	Lotto	220.57
15		Ben Swift	Sky	212.05

UCI World Tour rankings teams (after Road World Championships)

1		BMC RACING TEAM	1373.5
2		OMEGA PHARMA-QUICKSTEP	1287.75
3		RABOBANK	1128.45
4		VACANSOLEIL-DMC	1090.2
5		TEAM RADIOSHACK-NISSAN	866.45
6		LOTTO-BELISOL	855
7		DISCOVERY CHANNEL	798.1
8		EUSKALTEL-EUSKADI	737.8
9		HTC-HIGHROAD	618.55
10		SAXO BANK	550.2

Transfer market update 2

The new World Champion, Alessandro Ballan was out of a contract for next season when the World Championships took place. However, his team, BMC Racing has been very quick on reaching a new deal with the Italian to keep him in the team for 2 more seasons. BMC is managing to build a very strong team for next year to cover as many different types of riders as possible.

Belkin Pro Cycling Team will be the new denomination of the Rabobank team and they have started to announce new signings for the next season. Strangely enough, they have signed Steven Kruijswijk and Robert Gesink clearly focusing on the Grand Tours, but where they already have Rob Ruijgh and Hubert Dupont. Gesink has been a very good helper for Bauke Mollema, but it is difficult to see how the 4 of them will agree to work for each other with only 2 GTs next year.

Another renewed contract has been that of Tiago Machado with Team Saxo - Tinkoff. The results of the Portuguese haven't been as good as they were expected, but Saxo has agreed to extend his contract for 2 more season in the Danish team.

The HTC - Highroad team has also been active in the market and has brought to their squad Geraint Thomas and Andrew Talansky. Thomas will be a signing that will allow HTC to be present in the cobbled races, where they have been completely anonymous this year as they focused in GTs and one week races.

Thomas to HTC

Good to see this on the front page again.

The race of the falling leaves is the last monument of the season, but it should not be considered less important because of its placing in the cycling season. A win around the lakes of northern Italy is sometimes the result that saves the season of otherwise poor performances. The profile this year will bring back the Muro di Sormano, a short variant of the climb to the Colma di Sormano with peaks of up to 25% gradient.

The last winner in Como was Damiano Cunego, winning the sprint of a group ahead of Janez Brajkovic. The other surprising winner in the opening season of the story was Tyler Farrar. None of them is expected to have any chances of repeating the win today so the history books look set for another name among the winners in Lombardy.

Favorites:

- Bauke Mollema (Vacansoleil - DMC): The Giro di Lombardia is probably the only monument that the pure climbers can think of winning. Therefore, Bauke Mollema has to be among the favorites after his dominant win in the Vuelta a España. The Dutch has stated that, even this late in the season he would be delighted if he could win in Italy.
- Simon Gerrans (Team Radioshack - Nissan): Gerrans was second in the World Championship and seems to arrive in Lombardy with a good shape. The Australian will probably suffer in the earlier long climbs, but once they get to Madonna del Ghisallo and Villa Vergano he could be among the best.
- Davide Rebellin (Movistar Team): Davide Rebellin was a bit of a disappointment in the World Championship as he didn't seem to be as strong as the best in the hills of Firenze. However, the Giro di Lombardia should suit his abilities well. He is the local hope to repeat a local win that Damiano Cunego got in 2011 in Como.
- Dries Devenyns (Omega Pharma - Quickstep): This will be the farewell race for Dries Devenyns from the Quickstep team, where he has been the best part of his career. Therefore, he would not like to say goodbye to the team in a season with no wins on his account so far. The race in Lombardy will be his last chance of getting a win of the year.

Other notable riders that will have a chance in Italy are Mikel Nieve and Janez Brajkovic (Discovery Channel), Bjorn Leukemans (Lotto - Belisol), Denis Menchov (Omega Pharma - Quickstep), Rob Ruijgh (Rabobank) and Steven Kruijswijk (Movistar Team).

Previous winners

	First	Second	Third
2009	Tyler Farrar	Alessandro Petacchi	Jakob Fuglsang
2011	Damiano Cunego	Janez Brajkovic	Hubert Dupont

Startlist

Go Mollema!

BMC to win

nice win by Ballan in the WCRR

Bergamo - Lecco



The Giro di Lombardia changed its finishing town from Como to Lecco and the route this year is quite hard. The Muro di Sormano will be recovered and will be accompanied by the Valico di Valcava, Madona del Ghisallo and Villa Vergano. The flat part between the Ghisallo and Villa Vergano means that attacks in the former are unlikely and the race will probably be decided in Villa Vergano.



A group of 9 riders were in front as they reached the top of Valcava (168 kilometres remaining) but none of them were too dangerous. In the group were riders like Elia Viviani (Lampre), Daniele Bennati (Radioshack), Sebastian Langeveld (Vacansoleil), Chris Anker Sorensen (Saxo Bank) and Mathias Frank (Garmin). They had a good gap of 6' 25'' at the top over a bunch where Lotto was setting an uncomfortable pace in the climb.



The chase for the break started shortly before the climb to the Colma di Sormano. Movistar put Dani Moreno and Steven Kruijswijk to work at the beginning of the climb, but it was Lotto who did all the job through the Muro di Sormano. The very tough last part of the climb was a struggle for many in the pack as Vanendert and Kiserlovski increased the pace. By that time the gap of the break had decreased to only 2 minutes.



Almost 80 riders started the third climb of the day in the main bunch and the break was reeled back in at the first slopes of the mountain. However, the group was greatly reduced at the top as mainly Radioshack did the job this time. Frank Schleck was the first to put a high pace and as Damiano Cunego led the group through the top of the mountain only 30 riders remained in the bunch. That was a small group with 47 kilometres still remaining. Several important riders had already lost contact, as the World Champion Alessandro Ballan, Tiago Machado, Tejay van Garderen and Joost van Leijen.



The flat part between the Ghisallo and Villa Vergano only served to discard the chasers from the fight for the win. The group of 30 was pulled by Vacansoleil and Radioshack and opened a good gap behind them. Carlos Barredo started the climb in front ahead of Peter Stetina. The American is the only man from BMC in the group.



Andy Schleck was the first to try an attack as soon as Villa Vergano started. However, the two riders to open a gap were Davide Rebellin and Bauke Mollema. They have 25 seconds halfway through the climb over the group, where Simon Gerrans is trying to react and close that gap.



Bauke Mollema, Davide Rebellin, Dries Devenyns and Simon Gerrans reach the top of Villa Vergano together and have 35 seconds over Rob Ruijgh and Janez Brajkovic. It looks like the race could be in the front, as it is all favorable terrain from there to the finish line in Lecco. The group where they travelled crossed the top of the hill 1 minute behind.



But the group of 4 was caught by an uncomfortable enemy as Rob Ruijgh put a lot of effort to catch them in the descent towards Lecco. This group has 30 seconds over a group of 4 chasers, but with less than 4 kilometres remaining it is unlikely that they will merge.



Bauke Mollema leads the way in the sprint with less than 1 kilometre remaining in the stage. Simon Gerrans is chasing with Dries Devenyns and Davide Rebellin right behind. The Italian seems to be faster and gain places. Rob Ruijgh seems to be suffering after the effort he put to reach the group.



Bauke Mollema wins in Lecco! The Dutch takes the first monument of his career, the Giro di Lombardia. An amazing end for the season for Mollema, who with the Vuelta and Lombardia settles his second straight win in the World Tour classification. The podium of the Lombardia will be completed with Simon Gerrans and Davide Rebellin.

Dries Devenyns took the fourth place in his last race for Quickstep and Rob Ruijgh made it home in fifth place. The disappointment of the day was Bjorn Leukemans, who seemed not so comfortable with the pace set by his teammates in the harder climbs. This settles the season in the World Tour, with Bauke Mollema taking the overall win ahead of Tejay van Garderen and David Lopez.

Today's Winner



Stage Results

1		Bauke Mollema	VACANSOLEIL-DMC	7h50'01
2		Simon Gerrans	TEAM RADIOSHACK-NISSAN	s.t.
3		Davide Rebellin	MOVISTAR TEAM	s.t.
4		Dries Devenyns	OMEGA PHARMA-QUICKSTEP	s.t.
5		Rob Ruijgh	RABOBANK	s.t.
6		Damiano Cunego	TEAM RADIOSHACK-NISSAN	+ 36
7		David López	EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI	s.t.
8		Andy Schleck	HTC - HIGH ROAD	+ 55
9		Janez Brajkovic	DISCOVERY CHANNEL	s.t.
10		Björn Leukemans	LOTTO-BELISOL	+ 1'46

Probably the strongest rider in the peloton at this moment.

Mollema continues his Brilliant season

He is definitely the best rider in the mountains and in the GTs. We'll see if he can repeat his dominance next year, it looks quite likely.

Mollema is staying with Vacansoleil right?

UCI World Tour rankings riders (final standings)

1		Bauke Mollema	Vacansoleil	785.53
2		Tejay Van Garderen	BMC	620.42
3		David López	Euskaltel	572.48
4		Fränk Schleck	Radioshack	566.43
5		Rob Ruijgh	Rabobank	471.97
6		Mikel Nieve	Discovery	407.56
7		Denis Menchov	Quickstep	377.78
8		Hubert Dupont	Rabobank	304.97
9		Peter Stetina	BMC	288.46
10		Davide Rebellin	Movistar	274.12
11		José Joaquin Rojas	HTC	253.91
12		Dries Devenyns	Quickstep	246.8
13		Björn Leukemans	Lotto	232.57
14		Peter Sagan	Vacansoleil	231.22
15		Jelle Vanendert	Lotto	220.57

UCI World Tour rankings teams (final standings)

1		BMC RACING TEAM	1373.5
2		OMEGA PHARMA-QUICKSTEP	1327.75
3		VACANSOLEIL-DMC	1170.2
4		RABOBANK	1158.45
5		TEAM RADIOSHACK-NISSAN	946.45
6		LOTTO-BELISOL	857
7		DISCOVERY CHANNEL	803.1
8		EUSKALTEL-EUSKADI	752.8
9		HTC-HIGHROAD	628.55
10		SAXO BANK	550.2

Mollema deservedly takes the End of Season Honours